Table o contents

Syunik is a green but muntainous aurie. The heich-water major rivers are the Meghri, Voghdji, an Vorotan. Simmertime temperaturs can reach mair than 40°C, although the average temperatur is aroound 22°C. Its border wi Nakhchivan tae the wast is definit bi the Zangezur Muntains.

The Caliphate tree'd tae control aw these regions, an for this reason Bogha decidit tae repopulate the ceety o Chamkor in the Kura river wi Muslims. Chamkor, being near Barda an Ganja, wis intendit tae act as a regional monitorin post. Bi order o the new Caliph in 862, the impreesoned princes wur tae be released an alloued tae return tae their umwhile domains on the condition o becomin Muslim. (Housomeivver, they aw abandoned Islam efter their return.)

A few years later, the prince allee'd wi the emir o Sadjid, Yusuf, against Eastren Syunik, which they invadit thegither. Sembat wis sheltered in the fortress o Erendchak (the day Alindja, northeast o Nakhchivan) an Yusuf remained awner o Eastren Syunik. Sembat requestit refuge frae his brither-in-law Khatchik-Gagik, which wis grantit. In the same year (909), the prince o Wastren Syunik, Grigor Sufan II, submittit ae the emir Yusuf in Dvin. Anerlie Byzantine muivements an the athdrawal o the Sadjids permittit him tae recover the throne some time later. Sembat, wi his three brithers Sahak, Babgen, an Vasak, govrened again. An aw in Wastren Syunik, Sahak, Ashot an Vasak, brithers o Grigor-Sufan II, wur govrenin the kintra. Efter them the dynasty o Wastren Syunik became extinct an the territory wis subsumit bi the Muslims.

The eastren pairt remained dividit: Sembat, which haed the main title, govrened the wastren pairt o the Eastren Syunik wi the Vayots Dzor, bordered bi Vaspurakan. Sahak govrened the eastren pairt till the river Hakar. Babgen govrened the destrict o the Balq, an Vasak (who dee'd in 922) an indeterminate territory. Nasr, the emir o Azerbaijan, captured territory through perfidy against Babgen an Sahak in Dwin. Efter the invasion, Sembat unseated Nasr an obtained the freedom o his brithers. Sembat wis follaeed bi his son Vasak, an Sahak in turn bi his son Sembat. Vasak receivit the ryal title frae the Muslims at the end o his reign, which lastit till 963.

Later, the Orbelian Dynasty, ane o whose memmers wrote an important history o the kintra, govrened Syunik in times o Timur (Tamerlan) as vassals. Atween mid-17t c an early 19t c, the region wis pairt o theKarabakh khanate o the Safavid Empire. It wis durin this period in the region's history that David Bek heidit an airmit struggled against the Safavids an the Ottoman Empire, baith o which wur fechtin for control o the aurie.

Armenie forces eventually secured the region but their efforts wur in vain when the Bolsheviks, successful in the Roushie Ceevil War, pushed deep intae the Caucasus. Syunik wis ane o the last major hauldoots o the DRA whose leaders wur eventually expelled bi incomin Soviet authorities tae Iran. Durin Sovietization, Syunik became pairt o Soviet Armenie, while the twa ither disputit territories, Nakhchivan an Nagorno-Karabakh became pairt o Soviet Azerbaijan. It then became part of Armenia under the Transcaucasie SFSR an pairt o the Armenie SSR in 1936. Unner Soviet rule, Syunik suffered a devastatin earthquake in Aprile 1931, leavin 80% o its veelages destroyed.[15] A subsequent earthquake hit the region in May durin the same year, destroyin 27 o 38 veelages in the Sisian destrict.[16]

Despite the region's troubled early years in the Soviet Union, it gradually began to recover with much of the area's infrastructure rebuilt and improved. During the Soviet era, Syunik was noted as a source of metal and ore production.[17] Housomeivver, the region was shaken by the renewal of the conflict ower Nagorno-Karabakh wi neebourin Azerbaijan. In 1987-1989, the remaining Azeri inhabitants fled the region as a result o interethnic violence.[18][19] This exodus of Azeri population made Syunik and Armenia in general more homogeneous.

Syne the collapse o the Soviet Union in 1991, Syunik haes been a constituent pairt o the Republic o Armenie. The republic's southernmost province, it has become strategically and ecomically important for Armenia, sharing a border with Iran from which vital energy resources are exported. Recently, a new 140-kilometer-long Armenia-Iran pipeline has been opened that is "projected to supply Armenia with up to 1.1 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas per year until 2019, when that supply target is expected to rise to 2.3 bcm annually."[20] The new pipeline has attracted Armenia's northern neighbor, Georgia which seeks to lessen its dependence on energy from Russia. Also, 2 tombs and a cemetery were found between villages of Kornidzor and Khndzoresk in Goris region. These were built by Armenian architects during Kara Koyunlu rule and were found by researchers of the Preservation Committee for Historical and Cultural Monuments of the Armenian Republic in 2000.[21]

The province o Syunik consists o the follaein 109 commonties (hamaynkner), o which 7 (bauld in the table) are considered urban an 102 are considered rural.[22] The diveesion belaw is bi raion, the admeenistrative subdiveesions o Armenie afore 1995.